The Domain Name System (“DNS”) is the part of the Internet infrastructure that translates human-readable domain names into the Internet Protocol (“IP”) numbers needed to establish TCP/IP communication over the Internet. DNS allows users to refer to web sites, and other resources, using easier to remember domain names, such as “www.example.com”, rather than the numeric IP addresses associated with a website, e.g., 123.4.56.78, and assigned to computers on the Internet. Each domain name can be made up of a series of character strings (e.g., labels) separated by dots. The right-most label in a domain name is known as the top-level domain (“TLD”). Examples of well-known TLDs are “com”; “net”; “org”; and the like. Each TLD supports second-level domains, listed immediately to the left of the TLD, e.g., the “example” level in “www.example.com”. Each second-level domain can include a number of third-level domains located immediately to the left of the second-level domain, e.g. the “www” level in www.example.com.
The responsibility for operating each TLD, including maintaining a registry of the second-level domains within the TLD, can be delegated to a particular organization, known as a domain name registry (“registry”). The registry is primarily responsible for answering queries for IP addresses associated with domains (“resolving”), typically through DNS servers that maintain such information in large databases, and operating its top-level domain.
In some instances, in order to obtain a domain name, that domain name is registered with a registry through a domain name registrar, an entity accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and authorized to register Internet domain names on behalf of end-users.
Generally, when a domain name is registered, domain data, such as registrant contact information, administrative contact information, technical contact information, register information, current status, date of creation, date of last update, date of registration expiration, and name server addresses, is stored in a database that can be queried. Many current systems use the WHOIS protocol to store and deliver domain data to requesters. However, an alternative to WHOIS, Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP), may soon replace the use of WHOIS in many systems.
RDAP provides several advantages over WHOIS, including a standardization of requests and responses, internationalization considerations to cater to languages other than English, and redirection capabilities to allow seamless referrals to other registries. However, RDAP is currently limited in the domain data that can be stored and delivered to requesters and in the amount of control that the entity that owns the domain (“registrant”) has over who can access certain domain data.
Therefore, systems, methods, and computer-readable media are desirable that can provide improved RDAP operations.